Who can turn down a free day to mingle with penguins and a new harbor seal pup? Seniors Day at Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach offers free entrance Sept. 6 for the 50-and-older crowd. The deal: A valid ID is all that's needed for seniors to receive free admission to the museum that houses 11,000 ocean animals from nearly 500 species. Fish, sea creatures, the Shark Lagoon, the Magellanic penguins and other displays highlight what dwells in the southern and northern Pacific Ocean.

What goes around comes around, some in Long Beach are saying about a proposal to rebuild the city's famous seaside roller coaster. City Council members will be asked Tuesday night to authorize a feasibility study into the construction of a two-lane “racing” roller coaster on a 2½-acre site near either the Long Beach Aquarium or the Queen Mary. Backers of the project say they have lined up investors for what designer Larry Osterhoudt calls the Cyclone Racer coaster. City Council member Gerrie Schipske wants the city manager to determine the feasibility of the coaster project, which she said “would create considerable tourism dollars” for Long Beach.

The Aquarium of the Pacific's newest exhibit introduces visitors to an eerie world beyond the reach of sunshine: the bottom of the ocean, a strange seascape of crushing pressure, volcanic fissures and an abundance of cryptic creatures. The Wonders of the Deep gallery, which is scheduled to open to the public May 24, will be one of the few places where visitors can marvel over bioluminescent fish and opportunistic scavengers that inhabit the biological oases created by dead marine mammals that sink to the bottom.

Who can turn down a free day to mingle with penguins and a new harbor seal pup? Seniors Day at Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach offers free entrance Sept. 6 for the 50-and-older crowd. The deal: A valid ID is all that's needed for seniors to receive free admission to the museum that houses 11,000 ocean animals from nearly 500 species. Fish, sea creatures, the Shark Lagoon, the Magellanic penguins and other displays highlight what dwells in the southern and northern Pacific Ocean.

Whenever the executive in charge of hiring at the nascent Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific has doubts about a job candidate's ability to fit in, she trots him or her into the office of President and Chief Executive Warren Iliff. If the prospective employee gets a chuckle out of the decor--including the duck feet crossing the ceiling, the antique brass diving helmet and the two stuffed dinosaur-like critters in an ornate glass-topped box--chances are the relationship will be a success.

Moving sluggishly along the sea floor, a school of scuba divers scoured the reef off the Palos Verdes Peninsula for specimens to round out an exotic collection of about 10,000 sea creatures at the new Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach.

A 2-year-old girl was left strapped in her safety seat in a locked car behind the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach Wednesday night, and police were searching for her mother, her mother's boyfriend and the couple's newborn daughter. "We have their car, we have their toddler, but we don't know what happened to [the couple] and we don't know where their 5-day-old infant is," Long Beach Police Sgt. David Cannan said Thursday.

Tiger shark. A voracious predator known for traveling the world's oceans and consuming everything in its way: smaller sharks, boat cushions, license plates, copper wire, shipwrecked sailors. But on a recent Tuesday, the new 5-foot-long tiger shark at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach refused to even acknowledge a chunk of restaurant-grade ahi tuna dangled in front of its broad snout. That worried Assistant Curator Steve Blair, whose duties include trying to keep one of the few tigers sharks in captivity in the United States as comfortable, healthy and stress-free as possible.

Sporting brilliant colors and exotic names, the first fish have arrived at the Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific. "Here they are, our first residents," said marine biologist Sandy Brick. "It is so exciting to put the very first fish in." Currently 22 yellow tangs and nasotangs are in the Tropical Pacific Preview tank as about 100 construction workers finish the spectacular wave-shaped structure scheduled to open in June. The aquarium near Queensway Bay will have 21 major exhibit tanks.

The Aquarium of the Pacific's newest exhibit introduces visitors to an eerie world beyond the reach of sunshine: the bottom of the ocean, a strange seascape of crushing pressure, volcanic fissures and an abundance of cryptic creatures. The Wonders of the Deep gallery, which is scheduled to open to the public May 24, will be one of the few places where visitors can marvel over bioluminescent fish and opportunistic scavengers that inhabit the biological oases created by dead marine mammals that sink to the bottom.

The Aquarium of the Pacific may finally get a direct line to the ocean. For years the Long Beach attraction has filled its complex of fish tanks and marine habitats with saltwater delivered by tanker truck or barge at a cost of up to $500,000 a year. Now, the aquarium and the city of Long Beach want to draw water directly from the sea, sucking in 50,000 gallons a day with a pump mounted under a fishing pier at the mouth of the Los Angeles River. The California Coastal Commission is recommending approval of the aquarium's new seawater intake system, with the panel scheduled to vote on the plan at its meeting Wednesday in Santa Cruz.

Tiger shark. A voracious predator known for traveling the world's oceans and consuming everything in its way: smaller sharks, boat cushions, license plates, copper wire, shipwrecked sailors. But on a recent Tuesday, the new 5-foot-long tiger shark at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach refused to even acknowledge a chunk of restaurant-grade ahi tuna dangled in front of its broad snout. That worried Assistant Curator Steve Blair, whose duties include trying to keep one of the few tigers sharks in captivity in the United States as comfortable, healthy and stress-free as possible.

A 2-year-old girl was left strapped in her safety seat in a locked car behind the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach Wednesday night, and police were searching for her mother, her mother's boyfriend and the couple's newborn daughter. "We have their car, we have their toddler, but we don't know what happened to [the couple] and we don't know where their 5-day-old infant is," Long Beach Police Sgt. David Cannan said Thursday.

Three of the five sea lions at the Aquarium of the Pacific -- two females and a pup -- have died, officials said Saturday. The death of 7-year-old Roxy and the demise of 4-year-old Kona and her baby were unrelated, a spokeswoman for the Long Beach facility said, but occurred within a 24-hour period. Roxy had a lethal reaction to anesthesia about 5 p.m. Friday during emergency surgery.

Crouched behind the Long Beach aquarium, a foghorn moaning off the coast, the three Franklin Middle School boys waited. The Aquarium of the Pacific now deserted, the 13-year-olds climbed the wall and began dragging docile sea life from darkened pools, prosecutors allege. They stabbed three sharks and a ray with pipes and left all but one to suffocate out of water. They lobbed small sharks into tanks of bigger predators. They slashed a shark's translucent egg sac and severed the embryos.

With Long Beach city fathers at it again, skeptics were having a field day. Project after project had gone sour: Pay-for-play softball, downtown redevelopment, minor league baseball. Now, despite a chronic budget deficit, city leaders decided to build a world-class aquarium with borrowed money. Bond payments were based on drawing 1.6 million visitors a year. Critics went wild. Draw that many people to Long Beach? Surprise, surprise.

Regarding "Ordering Up a Walk With Fish and Ships" (Hiking, Aug. 2): A recent visit to the Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific was an utter disappointment. The exhibits do not live up to the hype! They were small and few in number (the notable exception was the "predator" tank). All of this was presented at an inflated price: $40 for two, with parking and advance purchase fee for the tickets. Conversations with other families in the parking structure confirmed that we were not the only ones who felt "ripped off."

Gliding about in a murky quarantine tank at the Aquarium of the Pacific lurks one lucky shark. Barely visible in the bubbly water, the sand tiger shark will soon join about 150 other creatures in a $3-million, 10,000-square-foot exhibit at the Long Beach aquarium.

Trying to prevent a municipal bailout of the struggling Aquarium of the Pacific, the Long Beach City Council on Tuesday approved a plan to refinance the aquarium and transfer ownership of its building to the city. Long Beach officials say the move will reduce the overall debt of the aquarium, which might not be able to afford this year's interest and principal on bonds sold to build it.